Martial Eagle

[John Ippolito]

Martial Eagle
Kruger Park- south of Shingwedzi Rest Camp, South Africa
D300, 300 2.8 VR, f4.5, 1/2000, ISO 400, handheld, crop from left.
I just reprocessed this one - taken a couple of years back. Not the best lighting conditions, and an uninteresting sky/BG - but what a magnificent bird, and I liked the eagle's full crop.
I spent the better part of an hour watching this eagle slowly dine on a francolin (with its back to me of course), just hoping it would turn around for an image or two. When it was finished with the francolin, it flew down to the sandy soil - cleaning its beak and bloody feet. For some reason, it took to the air again, landing right back on the same broken mopani limb giving me a couple of frames to work with before departing for good. The feet look strangely gray in the image. I think from the sandy soil.
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[jack williamson]

Great IQ and dynamic landing shot. The eye is great.

[David Salem]

Thats an awesome capture. Even though you had harsh light, I wouldnt know it. Good IQ and I like the pose captured. Yes, the orangish eye really adds allot to this fine shot.

[Loi Nguyen]

What a beautiful capture, tack sharp, love the details and the eye.

[Vivaldo Damilano]

Fantastic pose, love the pose and the huge outstretched claws. The eye adds nicely, well done on getting this rare bird.

[PhilCook]

Very nice, those talons are very impressive, my only thoughts would be to have more canvas on the left rather than a square crop

[Frank Schauf]

Really nice flight shot and great details.

[Lyle Gruby]

Definitely a magnificent bird. Great pose and stare. Appears to be a little bit of noise in the underwing. That eye is piercing.

[Daniel Cadieux]

Thanks for the write-up on the image, John. That is quite the full crop indeed! Neat landing pose and I like the perch. Although the eye is quite striking I find it a tad bright for the type of light hitting it, especially the lower half. Also a bit tight in the frame. A beautiful image though and I'm glad you've revisited it and shared it with us!

[Melissa Groo]

What a fantastic landing image. Gorgeous detail. I agree eye could be toned down a little as it looks unnatural, but overall this is a real winner.

[Cheryl Arena Molennor]

That is one cool image. Love the landing pose and expression. I think you did great with the light with wonderful wing detail

[stuart wanuck]

Great capture love the eye and motion

[John Ippolito]

Thanks for all the great feed back everyone. Here is a repost with the eye toned down a couple of notches.

[vishaljadhav]

John you have a amazing image here, superb bird and you have captured all its features very impressively
I love both the OP and Repost both are good

[Kaustubh Deshpande]

Good job in the repost.

Awesome shot. loved the head position and underwing details. Its quite dynamic so the sky BG does not bother me much. I agree with others that it is a bit tight. Not sure how much space you have in the orig...but if you do, then adding some will help.